Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Mayor Saved From Resigning After Cert. Denial

On Tuesday, the US Supreme Court denied certiorari in the case of Great Falls, SC v. Wynne(4th Cir., 2004) which had banned explicitly sectarian prayers at town council meetings. The Anderson, SC Independent Mail reported yesterday that this saved Anderson mayor Richard Shirley from having to carry through on his threat to resign if the Supreme Court prohibited him from using the name of Jesus Christ in invocations before city council. Anderson's City Council uses a rotation system, giving each council member the opportunity to lead the invocation as he or she desires. Apparently in the case involving Great Falls, members of the public were sometimes prevented from participating in council meetings if they were not present to hear the prayer. Anderson has no such restriction.